Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 (Edmonton) Under what is being called a national day of action and solidarity, First Nations and their supporters have organized more than 13 nation-wide rallies for Monday (December 10) to express opposition the legislation the Harper Government has put forward in Bill C-45 and other bills.

The movement, under the banner “Idle No More” (#IdleNoMore) emerged within the grassroots less than four weeks ago in Saskatchewan. It began as an effort to educate First Nations people on the multitude of legislation being put forward by the Harper government that they feel is a direct attack on the rights of First Nations. The organizers Sylvia McAdam, Jess Gordon, Nina Wilson and Sheelah Mclean began by organizing “teach-ins” to inform people.

On Dec. 2, when another Idle No More session was called in Alberta, more than 150 people drove into Louis Bull First Nation on a Sunday to hear what the presenters had to say. The organizer for that event, Tanya Kappo, took to Twitter and Facebook to help generate awareness on the matter as the passage of Bill C45 was imminent. Says Kappo, “the people in our communities had absolutely no idea what we were facing, no idea what plans Stephen Harper had in store for us.”

Sylvia McAdam, one of the organizers of the original Saskatchewan events stated, “We are not really surprised by the amount of support coming spontaneously from the grassroots and from the Chiefs, because we knew we could no longer stay silent in the face of what is a legislative attack on First Nation people and the lands and waters across the country.” McAdam said, ““Bill C 45 is not just about a budget, it is a direct attack on First Nations lands and on the bodies of water we all share from across this country.”

Opposition by First Nations to Bill C-45 garnered national attention last week during when 300 First Nations Chiefs marched on Parliament hill, and several Chiefs, led by Chief Fox, went inside Parliament to deliver a message to the government. This refusal to allow First Nations leadership to respectfully enter the House of Commons triggered an even greater mobilization of First Nation people across the country.

Rallies will be held on Monday, December 10 in Vancouver, Whitehorse, Calgary, Edmonton, Stand Off, Saskatoon, North Battleford, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto and Goose Bay-Happy Valley. More information can be found at www.idlenomore.com and also on our Event Pages

Press release below via Unist'ot'en Camp, a resistance community [in "British Columbia," Canada], whose purpose is to protect sovereign Wet'suwet'en territory from several proposed pipelines from the Tar Sands Gigaproject and shale gas from Hydraulic Fracturing Projects in the Peace River Region. To support the camp, donations can be made at http://forestaction.wikidot.com/caravan. To promote and follow the actions on social media, follow @UnistotenCamp, use #nopipelines, and find them here on Facebook.

Actions are taking place across Canada and internationally on Tuesday November 27 in support of the Unis’tot’en, who grabbed national headlines when they evicted shale gas pipeline surveyors from their territories in the interior of BC last week. The Unis’tot’en have made it clear that no proposed pipelines will proceed in Unist’ot’en territories and that corporations, investors, and governments have no jurisdiction to approve development on their lands.

On November 20, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Toghestiy intercepted and issued an eagle feather to surveyors from the Can-Am Geomatics company, working for Apache’s proposed shale gas Pacific Trails Pipeline. In Wet’suwet’en law, an eagle feather is used as a first and only notice of trespass. The surveyors were ordered to leave the territory and the road entering into the territory has been closed to all industry activities until further notice.

Since July of 2010, the Wet’suwet’en have established a camp in the pathway of the Pacific Trails Pipeline. Likhts’amisyu hereditary chief Toghestiy states, “Unist’ot’en and Grassroots Wet’suwet’en have consistently stated that they will not allow such a pipeline to pass through their territory. The federal and provincial governments, as well as Indian Act tribal councils or bands, have no right or jurisdiction to approve development on Unist’ot’en lands. By consulting only with elected Indian Act tribal councils and bands, the Canadian government breaks its own laws as outlined in the 1997 Supreme Court of Canada Delgamuukw decision which recognizes Hereditary adjudication processes.”

Freda Huson, spokeswoman for the Unist’ot’en Clan, states: “Pacific Trails Pipeline does not have permission to be on our territory. This is unceded land. Through emails and in meetings, we have repeatedly said NO. Pacific Trail Pipeline’s proposed route is through two main salmon spawning channels which provide our staple food supply. We have made the message clear to Pacific Trails, Enbridge, and all of industry: We will not permit any pipelines through our territory.”

If you listen to the mainstream media in Canada and Québec (or
elsewhere), you could be forgiven for believing that Québec's student
movement is running on cold embers these days. After a historic and
lively protest movement that saw hundreds of actions and hundreds of
thousands of people in the street demanding an end to the continued
neoliberalization of the education sector, a great victory was
achieved when the newly-elected Parti Québécois promptly repealed the
tuition hikes proposed by the former government. But this victory has
proven to be far from the end of the story for Québec's students,
which inspired the world with their activism, and - strangely enough -
brought banging pots and pans back in vogue.

The tenacious group of students known as CLASSE have reformed their
organization as the ASSÉ - roughly in English the "Association for a
Solidaric Student Union." ASSÉ, not content with wasting the momentum
they fought so hard to gain, is preparing to take the tuition fight to
the next level by demanding free university-level education be
guaranteed for everyone. Today's (continuing the tradition of monthly protests on the 22nd of the month) brought this demand back to the forefront of the
education debate in Québec. Thousands marched in Montreal, and nearly 60,000 students were on strike today. A recent press release by the group stated
that "in reality, though the tuition hike has been cancelled, teaching
institutions are not sheltered from other dangers such as the
commodification of knowledge." ASSÉ continues to lead the way in
demonstrating how education in a free and fair society can really work.

Aside from the fight for free education, there are many exciting
developments on the front to ensuring the tuition hikes are beaten
back for good. The newly-elected governments' Higher Education
minister, Pierre Duchesne, will be hosting a roundtable commission on
the financing of universities in Québec, which receive a large portion
of their funding from the government as public universities. A great
number of scandals have arisen in recent months. Notably, Concordia
University (which the author attends) was hit with a $2,000,000 fine
for granting $3.1 million in severance packages to 6 departing staff
members, one of which then pocketed the money and returned to the
university with a salaried position only a few months later.
Radio-Canada later learned that one of the University of Sherbrooke's
expensive new Longueuil campus buildings, found at the time to be
necessary expansion of the university, is almost vacant and lacking
private partners three years after its opening. Because of these
frequent and continuing scandals, the student movements are eager to
meet Minister Duchesne and defend student budgets against the excesses
of the universities' senseless spending sprees.

And finally, student organizations continue to contest the violent
police repression that was seen during the student strike. This week,
students at the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal (a post-secondary college)
voted with a nearly two-thirds majority to go on strike again this
week, demanding that the government drop all criminal charges against
student strikers. At this time, there are hundreds of charges awaiting
student strikers for a variety of actions of civil disobedience that
were committed. The ASSÉ, as well as the two other student groups
representing university and CÉGEP students, have partnered with
several prominent unions in Québec to call for a full inquiry into
police repression and violence against the student movement.